It seemed ages before I was able to battle my way back with Melinda, but eventually I was able to reach up and catch at a jutting rock. I heaved her clear of the water with a strength born of fear, for I was nearly exhausted by the effort and I knew that if once I lost my grip I would be unable to battle against the currents that would draw me out.
I paused to draw breath before hauling myself up the side, and that one moment of relaxation was my undoing. A sudden wave crashed me forward, bruised and dazed, against the great boulder and then I felt myself being dragged helplessly by a strong current out into the bay. I felt panic as I saw the cove recede farther and farther. This was the bay Giles had drowned in. Garth had been right: all my skill was now nothing against these fierce overwhelming waters. I had a dreadful longing to let go, just to allow myself to sink into the merciless sea and to struggle no longer.
Then I heard a shout: it seemed to me to be Garth’s voice, but I decided that I must be imagining it. But it heartened me to make one last effort. Then suddenly he was beside me, holding me up and supporting me.
I don’t remember the return to the beach: it must have taken a long time, because I was too exhausted to do much for myself. I think I must have drifted into unconsciousness. But it was such a pleasant sensation that I longed for it to continue for ever. It seemed to me in my half dreaming state that Garth was bending over me, his hands gently smoothing back my sodden hair and in a voice low and tender, such as I had never heard him use before—not even to Armanell—he was calling me his little Judith, murmuring soft endearments so that it seemed I was high on a rapturous cloud of bliss.
‘But I’m not little, you know: in fact, I’m quite tall,’ I heard myself saying with an air of extreme reasonableness.
Then I opened my eyes and found myself staring up into Garth’s face. With a sob of disappointment I realized that my dream had come to an end. My rapturous cloud was bumping unpleasantly on the terra firma of reality, for Garth’s face was no longer close to mine: he had straightened as he saw my return to consciousness and the glance he was giving me was anything but lover-like. I felt extremely foolish as I remembered my remark about not being little, but he made no reference to it and I hoped against hope that he hadn’t heard me.
‘Why did you let Melinda go so near the water when you know what a little crackpot she is?’ he demanded gruffly.
‘Melinda!’ I shot upright as memory returned. ‘Where is she? Is she all right?’
He pushed me back, none too gently. ‘Take it easy. Paul has taken her and Emile up to the house. There’s nothing wrong with her, except that she’s extremely wet and frightened which, for her, is not exactly a bad thing. And now we’ll have to get you back to the house.’
In spite of my objections he picked me up and carried me towards the house and as he climbed the short path leading upwards from the cove I knew that I was far too exhausted to do anything for myself and was amazed to see how fresh Garth seemed.
There was a diversion as we were about to enter the house: Armanell came down the steps and moved towards Garth’s big black saloon, parked near the doorway. She was dressed in her favourite white and with her skilful make-up carefully applied looked like a figure out of a fairy-tale.
Her jaw dropped as She saw Garth, his clothes dripping salt water, carrying me in his arms towards the house. ‘What on earth is going on?’ she demanded in no very sympathetic tone of voice.
Garth ignored her, carried me in and laid me on a settle in the hall. Then he turned to Mrs. Kinnefer, who had materialized—as she always did when there was any contretemps, just as if she knew by some spiritual sympathy every crisis that went on in the big house.
Everyone in the house seemed to be gathered around me at that moment; Paul and Mrs. Kinnefer, Melinda and Emile, with Hilda and Bessie and some of the other maids and Wilson hovering in the background: even Eunice was there, come down from her eyrie in the roof. And now Armanell followed us into the house.
For a moment I felt astonishment as I saw that Melinda was sobbing. ‘You’re all right, aren’t you? Oh, I couldn’t bear it if you died!’
I must have fainted then, because I remember nothing more until I came to in my own bed. Mrs. Kinnefer was fussing around with hot water bottles. Garth was leaning over my bed anxiously and to my surprise I glimpsed Armanell hovering in the doorway.
She came a few steps into the room. ‘Does this mean that our outing is off?’ she asked a trifle plaintively.
Garth turned an exasperated face towards her. ‘We’re certainly not going off until we know if Judith is all right,’ he said shortly.
‘Do you think I’m in any mood to enjoy a party immediately after Judith was nearly drowned rescuing that child Melinda? If it hadn’t been for the accident of Eunice seeing the whole thing from her study, we should certainly not have known what was happening until it was too late.’
‘I’m sorry, Garth. I’m afraid that was selfish of me,’ Armanell said submissively. ‘You go and change now and I’ll take care of her. I’ll see that everything is done to make her comfortable.’
She came towards my bed, took a chair near me and, after a moment’s hesitation, Garth went out, saying, ‘I’ll call in later and see how you’re getting on, Judith.’
As long as Mrs. Kinnefer and Hilda were fussing about, Armanell was all solicitude, but when eventually we were left alone her expression changed abruptly. ‘So you’ve managed to make yourself the centre of attention once more,’ she said acidly. ‘Do you realize that we were just driving off to a party when you created all that stir and now I’m cooped up in the house for the rest of the evening. For a governess you certainly manage to make plenty of impact.’
‘You don’t think I jumped into the sea just to spoil your evening?’ I gasped. Her accusation had brushed away the last of the shock I had suffered over the events in the cove. I was wide awake now and very angry. ‘Do you realize that Melinda was drowning?’
‘This is not the first occasion you have spoiled for me,’ she continued, ignoring this. ‘There was the day I arrived and you put that horrible child Melinda up to ruining my frock and making a nuisance of herself. Afterwards Garth told me that he had given you specific instructions to keep her in the schoolroom and not on any account to let her come down to meet me.’
‘You don’t think I put myself out to be obnoxious?’ I protested.
‘I don’t go so far as to say you do these things to plan—let’s just say that they’re an extraordinary coincidence. You seem to be very adept at creating scenes of chaos. You also manage to be very successful in keeping yourself in the forefront when Garth is around.’
‘But it wasn’t my fault,’ I insisted. ‘How could I help it if Melinda slipped into the water? Surely I’m not to blame.’
‘It is most certainly your fault,’ she retorted. ‘Why don’t you keep a closer eye on the children? If you had really been attending to your duties Melinda would not have fallen into the sea. I suppose you were daydreaming and paying no attention to what the children were doing. Sheltering behind Melinda’s naughtiness is a very convenient cover-up for your own hatred of me.’
‘How can you say such things?’ I protested.
‘You hate me because you’re in love with Garth and you’re doing everything in your power to attract his notice away from me to yourself; making yourself a little heroine by rescuing the child!’
I gazed at her in silence. So my love for Garth was so noticeable that she was able to accuse me of it! I must be more careful in future, I told myself. But then the shock of the near drowning had caught me off guard. Then there had been those tender words of Garth’s in the cove as he bent over me—or had I just imagined them? I had been too confused and exhausted at the time to think clearly. Perhaps it had been wishful thinking on my part.
It was then that Eunice came in and Armanell, making no pretence of her relief at getting away, took the opportunity to leave me ‘in Eunice’s hands’ as she expressed it.
‘Well, you’re certainly lucky to be alive,’ Eunice said abruptly as the door closed behind Armanell. ‘That was the cove Giles was drowned in. Not many people who are swept out in those currents live to tell the story. You owe your life to my snooping. If I hadn’t been watching through my binoculars you wouldn’t have stood a chance. I ran downstairs and caught Garth just in time. A little later and he would have driven off with Armanell and there would have been no swimmer here strong enough to get you back. Poor Paul would have been no more than a matchstick in those waters.’
I was by then sufficiently recovered to realize clearly the danger I had been in and to be grateful for my escape.
‘However, that’s not what I came in to talk about,’ Eunice went on. ‘I’ve come to speak about something very different.’ She paused as though considering, then said abruptly, ‘I want to warn you against Garth, Judith. At first I didn’t think it would be necessary, but now I see that it’s imperative.’
‘What?’ I sat up straighter against the pillows heaped behind my back. ‘What do you mean, warn me against Garth?’
She stood up abruptly, moved to my dressing-table and began to crash about amongst my make-up bottles. She sprayed skin-freshener on her weathered face, and the knowledge that her mind was miles away and that she was giving herself time to pick her words filled me with apprehension. My room was full of the scent of French almond as she once more approached my bed, plumped herself down on a chair, and said abruptly, ‘You’re in love with Garth: I could see it so plainly by the way you looked up at him as he carried you into the house: That’s why I must put you on your guard.’
‘But why?’ I faltered. I was conscious that shocked and with my defences down after my near drowning I had betrayed myself. It would be useless now to deny it.
‘You mustn’t let yourself fall for him, Judith,’ she said earnestly,
‘because—Oh, I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing in telling you this, but I’ve grown fond of you since you came here. You’re the only person who takes the least notice of me or considers me in any way. I simply can’t stand aside and let you throw yourself away on a murderer.’
‘A what?’ My voice was no more than a whisper.
‘I didn’t tell you this before, but I witnessed the whole thing through my binoculars from my study up there in the top storey, and I distinctly saw Garth throw Giles overboard.’
‘It can’t be true,’ I cried out. ‘Garth wouldn’t do such a thing. I know he wouldn’t.’
‘You know nothing of what happened,’ she said sharply. ‘You won’t believe me because you’re in love with him: it’s easy to deceive oneself when one’s in love.’
The fear that Eunice might be right in this held me silent.
‘You can believe me: why should I lie to you?’ she said, as though reading my thoughts. ‘I saw Giles trying to defend himself: he struggled, but Garth was younger and stronger and he pushed him overboard.’
‘No, no!’ I cried, covering my face with my hands.
‘As you know yourself,’ she went on inexorably, ‘once in those waters there’s hardly any chance of being saved—no chance at all for a person who can’t swim—and remember everyone here at Tregillis knew Giles couldn’t swim.’
‘But surely Garth made some attempt to save him,’ I protested.
‘He didn’t just turn the boat back to land and leave Giles to drown?’
‘The next thing I saw was the boat capsizing,’ Eunice answered.
‘The sails, of course, were neglected while they were struggling, but remember Garth is an expert yachtsman. It’s my belief that he deliberately allowed the sloop to capsize so that he would be spared any blame for not going to Giles’s rescue.’
‘But it could have been an accident,’ I wailed.
‘Not the way I saw it,’ she replied grimly.
It was an accident—it must have been an accident, I whispered to myself when at last Eunice had gone. And yet she had seemed so certain of what she had witnessed!
That night I tossed and turned in an agony of confusion. Had I really fallen in love with a man as evil as Eunice made Garth out to be? I couldn’t believe it. But, as Eunice had said, ‘when one is in love it’s easy to deceive oneself,’ I told myself.
I had asked Verity to help me choose a dress for the ball. I knew her artistic judgment would be a great help to me and I was firmly determined to look my best. Armanell had done her utmost to prevent me going and, out of feminine perversity, I resolved to appear as attractive as I possibly could.
Verity seemed delighted when I suggested we drive into Plymouth and that she should help me select a dress suitable for the occasion.
We set off on one of my free afternoons. I had seen no sign of Armanell or Garth and I concluded that they were out.
We hadn’t much trouble in selecting the dress, as it transpired.
Somehow as soon as we had both seen it we knew it was the right dress for me, a froth of aquamarine silk chiffon over an underskirt of peacock blue taffeta, the bodice encrusted with tiny crystals and seed pearls. Verity drew in a breath of dismay when we inquired the price. ‘What a pity,’ she said sadly, ‘it would have looked perfect on you.’
I could see that she had immediately assumed that it would be beyond my resources. I hesitated, then said lightly, ‘Oh, I’ve saved up. I think I’ll splurge just this once.’
She looked at me in surprise. ‘It’s certainly a very beautiful dress and it seems a great pity that you couldn’t buy it, but it does seem dreadfully expensive, doesn’t it, and after all, it’s not the type of dress you could wear very often. I mean, it’s so spectacular.’
I nodded. ‘All the same, I’ve my heart set on it. And I haven’t bought anything new since I came here.’
It was strictly true, of course, but I refrained from telling her that I had arrived with a pretty big selection of clothes. But I could see that after her initial surprise that I could afford such extravagance, She had been delighted that I had decided on the frock and she was prepared to accept my rather lame explanation without suspicion. I was to find however that when I returned to Tregillis, my explanation was not accepted with such naivete.
After a lush tea in Plymouth, Verity and I had driven home through the dusky light of a summer’s evening. We both felt gay and expectant and extremely satisfied with ourselves. Verity, both for my sake, and also because I had insisted she approach the shops that might show interest in her work. At first she had demurred and with her usual self-deprecation had refused to display any of her work. But I had insisted and had almost frog-marched her into some of the shops that I thought might be interested in her jewellery and, to her surprise and delight, she had received several substantial orders.
‘Do you know, Judith,’ she said confidently, as I dropped her off and she took her tiny box of samples from the glove compartment, ‘I’ve the strangest feeling that this is going to be the beginning of wonderful things for me. This will sound strange to you, but actually I’ve never really liked being housekeeper to Paul. It’s placed me in a false position in relation to him, meant that we were never on equal terms. But if I could get sufficient work to make my jewellery a full-time occupation then I’d be independent and I wonder if he’d feel differently towards me too.’
She met my eye a little shyly and with her usual quiet perspicacity, said, ‘Well, perhaps what I really mean is that I’d feel differently towards him. Do you think I’m right?’
I nodded. ‘Yes, indeed I do. All you need is confidence, Verity.
Once you realize you count for something in your own right you’ll find that your attitude towards Paul will change.’
Her eyes glowed. ‘You’ve been wonderful, Judith. Somehow today has transformed everything for me. Isn’t it amazing that in such a short time one’s outlook can change so drastically? I just know things are going to turn out well and if it hadn’t been for your coming to Tregillis—’
‘That’s right,’ I
laughed. ‘Send in your problems to Aunt Judith : she knows all the answers.’
But as I drove off I thought dismally that I didn’t know all the answers—not at least as far as Garth Seaton was concerned.
As soon as I entered the hall, bearing my big ornate box, I knew I was in for trouble. As I went through the hall the door of the library was open and Armanell, alone for once and obviously very bored, called out affably, ‘Don’t tell me you’ve been shopping! What is it you’ve got in that interesting-looking box? A new dress? And if my eyes don’t deceive me it’s from Marsden’s too. Do slip it on and we’ll have a little fashion parade on our own before Garth comes back.’
I was wary of her enthusiasm and attributed it mainly to acute boredom: she was trying to pass away the wearying time until Garth should rejoin her. But I caught a hint of just how charming she could be when she wished to get her own way and realized what power she would have over any man whom she had set her heart on.
I had to remind myself that this was all artificial and that I had seen her in too many crudely selfish and barbarously rude moods to be bewitched by her flattery. Yet, in spite of this, I found as I made my way upstairs that I had promised to put it on and come down in my full glory.
When I had changed and returned to the library, I kept telling myself grimly that I had been a fool to fall for her blandishments.
Why on earth did I feel I had to justify myself to this lovely sophisticated woman, Who never made the mistake of appearing in anything unbecoming just because it was fashionable but always adapted the styles to flatter her dainty petite beauty? I knew that I was desperately trying to show her that I understood how to dress and that I had chosen a dress that suited me perfectly. As I stood in the doorway of the library, the light from the long hall windows outlined the chiffon, aqueous and translucent over the rich blue green shimmer of taffeta, and glittered richly on the crystals and seed pearls on the bodice of the dress.
Garth of Tregillis Page 16
